February Giveaway

It's that time again; giveaway time! This month's giveaway runs from Sunday, February 15th to Sunday, February 22rd at 11:59pm EST. One winner will be chosen. The prize this time is a $15 gift certificate! The gift certificate can be used in my Etsy shop, www.alloverart.etsy.com, where I have a wide variety of items. I have several hand-painted fine art resin pendant necklaces, brooches, rings and bobby pins!

Here's how you can enter:

1) Go to my Etsy shop and pick out your favorite item.

2) Come back to this post and leave a link or comment telling me what your favorite item is, as well as a way to contact you in case you win. This could be an email address, your Etsy shop, or something similar.

3) Only one entry per person, unless you blog about my giveaway. If you blog about the giveaway, be sure to leave a link to your blog in your comment and you will be counted twice.

4) I will assign each entry a number. The winner will be chosen by a random number generator. I will announce the winner on Monday, February 23th on this blog, as well as contact him or her.

Good luck to you all! Have a great day.

Last Day Of My Valentine's Sale

Tomorrow, February 15th, is the last day of my Valentine's Sale in my Etsy shop. Here's my little Valentine to you:

**FREE SHIPPING on all orders $40 and under.
**FREE SHIPPING and 10% OFF all order over $40.

Don't miss out on the great deal!

I've even recently added a few new items to the shop!

Woodland Dreams Hand-Painted Art Pendant Necklace - (SOLD)

Bunny Silhouette Hand-Painted Art Pendant Necklace

Beverly Bluebird Hand-Painted Art Pendant Necklace

Woodland Dreams Hand-Painted Art Pendant Necklace

Poodle Silhouette Hand-Painted Art Pendant Necklace

Gnarled Tree Hand-Painted Adjustable Art Ring

As always, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Have a great day!

Thursday Sweet Treat Giveaway

If you haven't checked out the Thursday Sweet Treat blog yet, you are missing out. The Thursday Sweet Treat is "a place for artists and writers to dream, support one another and share the work they love to create." Natasha of DoodleStar is the talented and charismatic artist who put this blog together. About the blog she says "A theme is posted every Friday and then the people who choose to showcase their work post their new creations on the following Thursday! Come join us!" Anyone can participate, and as someone who has been a part of this endeavor the past few weeks, it really is a lot of fun. I created this Spring Tulip Hand-Painted Adjustable Art Ring for this past week's theme "Where the Wild Things Bloom." So many talented artists showcase their work every Thursday, and it's thrilling to see how each artist interprets the weekly theme.

A new theme will be posted sometime today, so be sure to keep checking out the blog to get inspired! There will be instructions with the new theme on how to enter.

Thursday Sweet Treat has also begun a new weekly segment in addition to the inspirational themes called the "Artist Play Date." Each Wednesday the blog will feature an artist and his or her artistic process or a tutorial. There will also be a giveaway featuring something from that artist's shop. This past Wednesday I was given the honor of being featured in the first "Artist Play Date" segment! I shared my resin tutorial, as well as offered a $15 gift certificate to my Etsy shop for the winner of the giveaway. The giveaway is still going on, so be sure to check out the post to enter. If you're interested in participating in future "Artist Play Dates", be sure to check out this thread in the Etsy forums.

Happy Friday everyone! :)

New Pop Art Pet Portrait Pendant

I recently finished another pop art pet portrait pendant (say THAT three times fast!) and the two pooches I painted are just too cute! A woman from My Shopping Connection, associated with the fantastic Indie Spotting site, is the owner of these precious pups. Here is the photo I was asked to work from:



To begin with, that is one awesome photo; and don't you just want to curl up with those two on the couch and rub their bellies?? :)

Here is the finished product:




It was pretty difficult to get two dogs on that tiny 1.5 inch circle, but I am pleased with the results. Thank goodness for my tiny paintbrushes!

If you'd like to commission your own pet portrait pendant, feel free to purchase one of my custom listings in my Etsy shop, or contact me. Have a great day!

Workshop Wednesday - Photoshop Tutorial With McGuinness Photography

Today marks another installment of a new weekly blog series titled Workshop Wednesday. Each Wednesday will feature either a tutorial by yours truly or another talented artist or artisan, or a snapshot of an artist's creative process. This week's Workshop Wednesday features Jen of McGuinness Photography, and I'm super-excited about her Photoshop tutorial "How To Tone Your Photos In Photoshop."

How To Tone Your Photos In Photoshop

Here is a quick technique you can use to tweak the colors of your photos. This is particularly helpful if you've underexposed an image or it's a cloudy day.


This is a test shot before a photo shoot of the lovely Mimi. It was cloudy outside so the colors are not as sharp as they could be. Her mouth and nose especially are very dark.

First I'm going to set the black and white values of my Levels. (In Photoshop, go to “Image” ‐‐> “Adjustments” ‐‐> “Levels”.) Photoshop will preload levels for you. You can change the values by double clicking on the black or white eyedropper. Let's start with black. I set my RGB values to "10" for each one. Then click OK.


Now double click on the white eyedropper.


I set my RGB values to "245" for each one. Then click OK. You'll be left with the levels window. Click OK to close. Now there is one more step to take. Go to Window‐‐> Layers.


A new box will show on your screen. Right click on the ying‐yang image at the bottom of this box. Select "Threshold."



Your image will turn to black and white.


Now when you slide the little arrow to the right, your image will turn to black. In my case, a little bit of white remains. This is the brightest part of my photograph. (If no white appears for your image, slowly move the arrow back to the left until the first white shows in your photo.)

When you move your mouse to go over your photo, a little eye dropper will appear. Hold down the Shift key and click on that white space. This will leave a cross hair on your image as a marker for later, as seen in the next example.


Now you'll do the same to find the darkest part of your photograph. Slide the little arrow to the right. Your photo will turn white. Now slowly move your arrow back to the left until something black appears.


Move your mouse to that part of the photo and hold down the Shift Key and click. Now you will have another cross hatch. When you are finished, click OK.

Now that we're done using the "Threshold" feature, you can go into your Layers box and delete it.


Click and hold that layer and drag it into the trash can icon.

Now you'll have your photo back. Go back to "Levels" by going to "Image" ‐‐> "Adjustments" ‐‐> "Levels" and the Levels box will come up.


Now click on the black eye dropper and find your cross hair (in this case, it will show as cross hair 2 on my photo).


Click on that space. Your image should change in tonal values (also notice how the Levels graph changes after you click).

Now you just need to tone the highlight.


Click on the white eyedropper and then click on your first cross hair.

When finished, click OK.

The cross hairs will still show on your image but will not show when you go to print your photo.

If you still want to play with your image, you can do other things in Photoshop, such as playing with Curves ("Image" ‐‐> "Adjustments" ‐‐> "Curves").


In here you can also play with how dark or bright the photo is by moving the graph up and down.


Thank you to Allover Art for inviting me to do this feature! I hope you find the above tutorial helpful! :)

Please be sure to check out Jen's work in her Etsy shop, McGuinness Photography! You can also find Jen in her other Etsy shop Fairy Crystals, in her Artfire Shop, and on her blog. Are you on Twitter? Check Jen out at username JMCPhoto.

**Interested in participating in future Workshop Wednesdays? Please convo me on Etsy or leave me a comment on this post.

Tuesday Tip - $100 Facebook Ad Credit

There's been a lot of talk recently about advertising on Facebook and whether or not it is an effective advertising venue. If you don't know what Facebook is, it's a free-access social networking site where users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and many other ways. I have always used Facebook since college to stay in touch with friends that I no longer see. Recently I discovered that it could be a potential venue for advertising my Etsy shop.


Facebook offers targeted advertising on their site. I've heard many people have success with it, and then some who felt like they spent a lot of money for nothing. With Facebook you can choose who sees your ad based on different factors like age, sex, interests and location. This enables you to create a very specific target audience. You can also set up the ad to pay per click or pay per impression.


Still unsure about whether you want to fork out the cash to test it out? Use this link to get a $100 Facebook ad credit. If you have a personal account on Facebook, simply sign up for the Visa Business Group, fill out a profile, and you will be sent an email with the credit. You don't have to apply for a Visa card or anything like that. It doesn't take any personal information from you other than your name. You can volunteer more info if you like. It's like free money! Why not sign up and find out if Facebook is the right place for you to advertise? I'm testing it out right now. Good luck to you!

**For those fearful of clicking on links, the above link simply leads to the Facebook App. It's just like any other App page on Facebook, like the Etsy-Mini Facebook App.

***UPDATE: FEBRUARY 15th***
So I created four different ads targeting different age ranges, education levels, and interests. Three of the ads were busts; very little traffic. One of them has been FANTASTIC and created a lof traffic to my shop and resulted in several sales this weekend. I know for a fact that those sales came from my ad because the buyers told me they found me from my Facebook ad in the 'note to seller.' I am thrilled that this ad is working out. I probably would not have tried out so many different ads if I was having to pay for each of them, so I am very grateful for this ad credit. I also discovered that paying per 1,000 impressions was the way to go for me since I was getting several clicks per 1,000 impressions. If I had chosen to pay per click, the ads would be costing more. So far, since I've started this ad I've had four sales totaling about $100 and the ad has "cost" me about $8.

For more updates and answers to frequently asked questions, see -----> this post.

Monday Must-Have - Pampered Papier

Today marks a new installment of my Monday blog series titled Monday Must-Have. Each Monday I will feature a fellow talented Etsian and his or her phenomenal work. Each featured artist will have his or her own online Etsy shop where you can peruse and admire his or her one-of-a-kind body of work. Hopefully you will find new favorite artists and artisans whose work you MUST HAVE. :)

Today's featured artist is Crystal of PamperedPapier!
Who are you (actual name/and or shop name)?

My name is Crystal Moore. I am a stay at home mom and my shop is PamperedPapier.

What do you create?

I create paper goods - notepads, gift tags, mini notes, promotional items, etc...

Where are you located?

I am in Thomasville, NC

When did you start creating?

I have been making things since I was little. My grandmother, a painter, raised me and encouraged my creativeness.
Why did you choose your shop name?

My three girls chose the name Pampered Papier for me.

What inspires you?

Everything inspires me, my girls and family especially. They give me a starting idea and we go from there - the possibilities are endless.

What is the most time consuming part of your craft?

Without a doubt the most time consuming part is cutting paper. In my spare time you will find me cutting paper of the sizes that I use the most.

What is your favorite place to visit in your hometown and why?

I really don't have a favorite place to visit in my hometown, but a few cities over is the NC Zoo and the girls and I try to go once or twice a month. It is so relaxing and beautiful there.
What is your most popular item that you create (and why do you think it is so popular)?

I am not really sure what the most popular item that I create is, but if I had to guess it would be between my mini envelopes and mini notes.

How do you acquire new clients?

Word of mouth probably. I am on Twitter and I also have a blog.

What's your next project going to be?

I don't really just have one project - I have many. I am working on some notepads, notebooks, gift tags, and mini notes.

What types of things do you do to turn first time buyers into repeat clients?

I make the product the best I can - quality shows and customers can tell and appreciate it, in my opinion. I know that is how I feel. Good communication is a plus too.
What do you do when you are not creating?

When I am not creating you will find me with my girls in a gym or on a ball field. All three of my girls are sports fanatics - soccer, softball, basketball, and cheerleading. They keep me quite busy.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

I just want to thank Ruth for featuring me!


Be sure to swing by PamperedPapier and check out Crystal's fantastic work! :)